Blog post 3/18/16

Today we finished up our prototypes, all printed and put together. We then had about 30 minutes sharing them with other groups, asking for their opinions and feedback. After jotting them down, we sat down and began discussing on how to improve our product.

Mr. Neale also demonstrated two fundamental design principles. 

March 16 2016

Today in class everyone used the laser cutter to make our prototypes with card board which we had to cut out 45:60. On the laser cutter, the placement must be set at the top left part of the board and uncheck auto-rotate. Also, after going to the page setup, go to preference, then make sure it is set at vector and 50 x 50 x 1000. When the laser printer is not set up right, it will not cut the exact shape the way you want it to. So to make sure that it will cut properly, first check by pressing print with the lid open. After making sure it is the way you want it to be, press pause, then reset, and close the lid, then press print again. Make sure you do not leave the printer because it may burn/cause fire.

After making the prototype, each group put it together and got to see what worked, what didn't work and thought about how to modify it. The homework for next class is to think of how to modify your computer stand so that you are ready to make the final/actual computer stand next class.

March 14, 2016

Today we shared our ideas for our laptop stands with the rest of our groups. We then combined our ideas to create our best designs, and began to cut prototypes.

3/8 Tuesday

Today in class we continued on planning, discussing and modifying our design and project. Some people and groups made rapid prototypes to see if they can find any issues. By taking the process of prototyping, we can realize mistakes from big to small. Others worked on their design in their illustrator. It seems like the usage of the application is hard to many people, some people understood and went smoothly through the process of design. Next class we need to finish and print our design at the end of class, because we want to move on. 

The Computer Stand Blog

In this project, we were given an objective which was to make a computer stand for a certain type of person. So we had many ideas, but in the end we made a Idea for a computer stand for a traveler. So the computer stand had to be portable, light, and adjustable. So we came up with a prototype and made it out of cardboard.
(this is a smaller prototype)

So after that day, we interviewed people, and I interviewed my dad, who travels a lot. And he told me that I just need something flat that has a case that is easy to find so that you do not have to search for it in your bag for a long time. He also said to make it light and portable. So the next class me and my group decided to change the thing. We changed it alot and instead of having those little holes they had before we had a cut that went half way through the main peice. We also made it complete foldable and adjustable.



We also highlighted certain sides to show which lengths had to be the same.

Friday 3/4

During the class, most of us were busy working on our projects. Some of us are still brainstorming our ideas, and some of us are ready to make the project pieces in AI. We discussed questions such as, how can we improve our project? what is our next goal? is there still parts that we need to include? how can we adjust some things to make it easier for everybody?. Questions such as these helped the class to make their designs better. Our goal for the next class is to continue to work on our projects and make them better. Below are some of the models done by the students.

blog post entry 3/3

Today in class we continued to work on our laptop stand project. We first made a rough sketch on paper to get a visual of our product. Then we spent the rest of the class making prototypes, so it would be easier to find the flaws of our projects, and improve them. 

Blog Post Entry 29/2

Today we continued work on our new project, using the shapes we created for homework from the previous lesson and using them to further enhance our knowledge in this topic.

The homework was to create and send shapes on AI to Mr Neale. These shapes had to have had two or three rectangular indents to its sides, and once he received them, Mr Neale printed them out on a 3D printer and brought them to class. As he walked around the classroom, scattering these shapes across our tables, his instructions were simple: "create something using every single one of these shapes."
Those were our instructions, and off to work we went.

Hard at work

Hard at work

After a process of trials and tribulations, we were finally able to come up with some interesting creations. To the left and right of this text are images of several students hard at work. They are trying to come up with the best design possible so their group can get the precious no-pushup pass.

Handsome fella

Hard at work

Finally time was up, and we compared our designs. Here are some images of each team with their creation.

After our activity with the shapes, we got into our new groups for this project. We concluded the lesson by brainstorming ideas for a stand that one could use that is made out of the shapes above.